Life In 19x19

Hi, long time since I've posted, (first on this site) but I suddenly find myself really enjoying go, and one of the biggest reasons is a download of Shygost's lessons. I'm finding them incredibly interesting and helpful. Some people have a way of putting things that simplifies and clarifies really murky topics and he clearly has the knack. Is Shygost still around? Does he still teach?

Even if he doesn't, I feel I owe him something, so if someone knows how to get in touch with the fellow, please let me know.

Thanks,

bleep

He does. He has a room called LGD, for Lance's Go Dojo on KGS, where he runs collectively supported weekly lessons that are open to the public. He also teaches individuals.

What good news, thanks.

Off to find him...

Bleep: you mentioned a download of Shygost's lesson. The only place I'm aware of where to find them is http://tengen.bur.st, but it's rather old and there are only 10 or so.
Is there any other archive out there?

I have 44 of his lessons on my HD.
Dates range from early 2006 to halfway into 2009
I watched a handful of them. The video quality is not great, but decent enough.

Problem is that I have no idea where I got them from, but they must be out there on the net somewhere.

I have a whole bunch of them which I got from the torrent below. I found that shygost definitely helped me improve by telling me to focus on the weak groups on the board. I don't like how dogmatic he is about some things, but overall he's helpful.

Thanks DE, I've no idea where I downloaded them. I've got just under 40, and as someone said earlier, the video quality isn't great but it's watchable. If the torrent doesn't work, and you know of a way to transfer just under a gig, give me a shout...

I have 30+ hours worth and found most of them on the internet archive:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query ... publicdate

They are in a variety of formats and quality levels and can be watched online or downloaded. I found it more convenient to download and watch at my leisure, not depending on a fast internet connection. Media Player Classic with CCCP play all the different formats for me.

I also just found this collection, but have not downloaded or even compared to see if they are repeats of the other collection:
http://www.esnips.com/web/Shygosts-Go-Lessons

Good to know he is still out there, I want to contribute also. These lessons are fantastic for me.

Libertad

Dusk Eagle wrote:I have a whole bunch of them which I got from the torrent below. I found that shygost definitely helped me improve by telling me to focus on the weak groups on the board. I don't like how dogmatic he is about some things, but overall he's helpful.

May I ask what program your using to replay these files?

This one here...

http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus

VLC and WMP seemed to battle for some reason.

Amazing stuff I feel stronger already

I feel like I have to let people know...

Many times, several strong players(AGA 6.0-9.0 rating and above) and I sat in on Shygost's lectures to see what all the fuss was about.

And yes, he is incredibly dogmatic. While he boasts a (6 dan level), I'd estimate him more like AGA 4d. Many of the things he says are either pointless anecdotes that waste quite a chunk of time of his $50 1 hour lessons, or are overly broad statements that aren't applicable many of the times he uses them.

Many times, his emphasis on not having to read makes some of the moves he demonstrates pretty ridiculous. Some of his good looking and good feeling moves simply don't stand up to even a little bit of tactical scrutiny, something which he often implies is unnecessary with his lessons.

Most of his students don't improve beyond the single digit kyu level, something which I think can be attributed to his teaching style. To be honest, I think it makes you feel like you're learning a lot, but you've actually just picked up different bad habits.

Whenever he reviews games, he's overly critical whenever the players are weaker than he is, and not critical at all when the players are stronger than he is. They're heavily subjective and usually it looks like he chooses whether or not a move is good or bad first, and then comes up with the proverb to support his argument. I think this method of review can be very harmful to a learning player.

To those of you currently using his lectures right now, my recommendations are:

1. Continue working on your reading(try to spot where in Shygost's lectures that he made a simple a reading mistake).

2. His opening rules of thumb are decent and worth remembering, but I would advise learning what to do when opponents do not follow them, because kyu players rarely do.

3. Always keep in mind that it's easy to look like you're giving excellent advice when you're the strongest player in the room, and when something sounds right, take it with a grain of salt and try it out in your own games first.


When it comes to lessons for kyu players, my personal two favorites are Maeda Ryo and Guo Juan. They're both very informative and stand up to reading scrutiny.

Now, Guo Juan's lectures aren't free, but they're a euro a piece, which is pretty cheap. For those who can afford them, I would definitely recommend them over shygost lectures, which, though they have their merits, are quite full of fluff and misinformation.

http://internetgoschool.com/

I'd definitely say good things about Maeda, but I didn't know he lectured or taught outside of his yearly visit to the go congress. Can you fix my ignorance?

He gives lectures on a Japanese server, but I forgot where that is.

I'm sure he'll inform you if you ask him next Congress, though.

i see Guo Juan offers A route from 30k to 5d (English lectures) thats very interesting I'm going to check it out, it looks pretty affordable too